Finland: VTT and Neste to Build a Power-to-Liquids Demonstration Plant
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Neste Oyj have agreed to build a technology demonstration facility.
Power-to-Liquids technologies are on their way to commercialization in scale, Neste underlined in June this year. E-fuels would offer a way to expand the carbon-neutral transport fuel pool beyond biomass-based renewable fuels to replace fossil fuels in existing internal combustion engines. “The end product is a transportation fuel suited for aircraft, ships, as well as heavy and light road vehicles,” the company that refines waste, residues and innovative raw materials, said. Since the development of high-temperature electrolysis, CO2 capture, and hydrocarbon synthesis technologies have been completed in the Veturi e-fuel research project, “the integrated technology is now ready for implementation”.
The future technology demonstration facility will be located at VTT Bioruukki Pilot Center in Espoo. According to Neste, the work started by first modifications to the research infrastructure at VTT Bioruukki. During 2022 and early 2023, electrolysis, CO2 capture, and synthesis units located in sea containers would be connected and the research infrastructure. The pilot runs of the project are expected to be completed by 2023. As reported, the technology demonstration will employ CO2 capture from flue gas, hydrogen production by high-temperature electrolysis and fuel synthesis based on the Fischer-Tropsch technology. “Both the CO2 capture and electrolysis solutions are provided by Finnish project partners, Kleener Power Solutions Oy and Carbonreuse Finland Oy as well as Convion Oy and Elcogen Oy, respectively. VTT will provide the fuel synthesis unit and technology and Neste carries out upgrading of the synthetic crude oil into fuel products fulfilling the specifications,” Neste informed. The company is expecting to see a successfully integrated demonstration of technologies and to receive at least 300 kilograms of synthetic crude oil for synthetic fuel processing development.
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 3/2022, Page 8, Photo: Neste)
